Rod Blagojevich’s Lone Jury Holdout: I’ve Been Mistreated

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Rod Blagojevich’s Lone Jurory Holdout: I’ve Been Mistreated

THE 67-YEAR-OLD GRANDMA WHO WAS THE LONE HOLDOUT against convicting Rod Blagojevich of trying to sell President Obama’s former senate seat was yelled at and belittled by other jurors.

But JoAnn Chiakulas says she’s no Blagojevich apologist — the prosecution just didn’t make its case.

“I could never live with myself if I went along with the rest of the jury,” Chiakulas told the Chicago Tribune. “I didn’t believe it was the correct vote for me.”

Chiakulas said the conflict while deliberating gave her stomach pain that kept her awake at night. But she was unprepared for the frenzied speculation about her after a mistrial was declared, and one fellow juror said Chiakulas was “thrown under the bus.”

It was something that I took seriously and didn’t ask for,” she said. “And then to be treated the way I’ve been treated, it makes me wonder about being a juror and the system itself.”

Blagojevich publicly thanked Chiakulas for her resolve, but she said, “I didn’t do it for him.”